Are the forest conservation practices sustained after Payment for Environmental Services (PES) programmes end? Using a sample of 268 (former) PES recipients and non-recipients from the Budongo-Bugoma PES programme in Western Uganda, we employ the before-after-control–intervention (difference-in-difference) approach to estimate the PES programme outcome on their privately owned forests. PES is associated with less deforestation during the operational period, but the link has vanished four years after programme termination. We label this weak permanence, i.e., PES recipients abandon the induced practices soon after the programme ended, but the gains (relatively higher forest cover) during the operational period are maintained. We also find that household and contextual variables are important in explaining PES permanence: low levels of agricultural land and remoteness from agricultural markets weaken PES permanence. Therefore monetary payments alone may be insufficient for lasting forest conservation. Integrating PES with other approaches, such as climate-smart agriculture may result in more permanent reductions in deforestation.

环境服务付费 (PES) 计划结束后，森林保护措施是否持续？我们使用来自乌干达西部 Budongo-Bugoma PES 项目的 268 名（前）PES 接受者和非接受者作为样本，采用前后对照干预（差异中的差异）方法来估计 PES 项目的结果他们的私人森林。PES 在运营期间与减少森林砍伐有关，但这种联系在项目终止四年后就消失了。我们标记这种弱持久性，即 PES 接受者在项目结束后不久就放弃了诱导的做法，但在运营期间的收益（相对较高的森林覆盖率）得以维持。我们还发现家庭和背景变量对于解释 PES 持久性很重要：低水平的农业用地和远离农业市场削弱了 PES 的持久性。因此，仅靠货币支付可能不足以实现持久的森林保护。将 PES 与气候智能型农业等其他方法相结合，可能会更持久地减少森林砍伐。